Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land
|re-released = Wii U Virtual Console | genre = Platform | modes = Single player, Multiplayer | ratings = |price = Target | platforms = Game Boy Advance }} Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is a Game Boy Advance remake of the 1993 Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) platform game, Kirby's Adventure. It features updated graphics and sound, and new sub-games. Level designs were left mostly intact, but with aforementioned alterations along with some minor retooling of areas to suit the new graphical style. Some new additions to the remake include 4-player support, 32-bit graphics, a decrease in difficulty, hats for most abilities, the three main sub-games from Kirby's Adventure being replaced by new ones, certain enemies from the original being replaced with new ones, and certain changes to certain levels. In addition, there are changes in the mechanics of certain Copy Abilities (Needle Kirby's spikes do not retract automatically, Wheel Kirby can drive on water, Backdrop Kirby dash-and-grabs enemies instead of inhale-and-grabbing them). Meta Knight, Kirby's rival, also makes his debut playable appearance in the sub-game Meta Knightmare after completing Extra Mode with Kirby. Meta Knightmare is like playing Extra Mode but as Meta Knight. He has three health points, cannot save, and uses various sword techniques instead of copying abilities. Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land has been re-released on the Wii U Virtual Console in October 2014. Intro When the logos show up, one Kirby runs to the left, then 120 of them dash by in the same direction. One of them trips and is kicked off-screen by the second to last Kirby. Although this intro shows many Kirbys, only four were known at the time: Red Kirby, Yellow Kirby, Green Kirby and regular Kirby. Oddly, the classic intro from the NES game is missing entirely, as is the tutorial when waiting on the title screen. Story The game starts with Kirby taking a nap, but something's wrong. Kirby has had no dreams, a truly unusual event in Dream Land. Kirby decides to visit the Fountain of Dreams, where all dreams spring from, to see if anything bad has happened to it. Upon his arrival, he finds King Dedede bathing in its waters. He finds that Dedede has broken the Star Rod, the power source of the fountain, into seven pieces, giving six pieces to his friends and keeping one himself. Kirby decides to track down the fragments to restore peaceful sleep and order to Dream Land. Kirby manages to defeat King Dedede at the Fountain of Dreams and replaces the Star Rod, but Nightmare appears right after. Nightmare absorbs the powers from the Fountain and flies into the sky. King Dedede inhales Kirby and sends him after Nightmare, where they battle on Planet Popstar's moon. Kirby manages to defeat Nightmare, and the explosion ends up making a large circular hole in the moon, making it crescent-shaped. Kirby returns to the Fountain of Dreams and places the Star Rod back in there, and everything returns to normal with the dreams back in Dream Land. Dedede's prior actions are then revealed to have been part of his plan to protect the Fountain from Nightmare, then Kirby and Dedede reconcile. Gameplay For the most part, the game plays similarly to its original NES incarnation. As with most ''Kirby'' games, this game is a platformer; the point is to get Kirby to the end of the current level through walking, jumping over obstacles and defeating enemies. Kirby's main method of attack is to inhale enemies or certain object and spit them at other enemies. Each stage is broken up into small sections ending in a door leading to the next section. At the end of each level (roughly 5 or 6 stages) is a boss fight which Kirby must win to get a piece of the Star Rod back. Sub-games Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land contains three new sub-games, replacing the ones from Kirby's Adventure. Many of these games have Kirby competing with differently colored "Kirbys". Bomb Rally Kirby uses a frying pan to hit a bomb to the other Kirby. Each time one misses, the bomb explodes and that Kirby is out (replaced by Bubbles). The last Kirby left wins. Kirby's Air Grind Kirby grinds on rails using the Warp Star to gain speed and race, but slows down if he tries to grind on rough black rails. The sub-game's name is similar to the racing video game Kirby Air Ride, which came out a year later. Samurai Kirby Although having the title of Quick Draw from Kirby's Adventure, it is an updated version of Samurai Kirby from Kirby Super Star. The same enemies in the original sub-game are fought, but Kirby will only use the fan as his weapon. Arena Arena is only available in Story Mode. Kirby can enter every Arena as often as he wishes, and the primary motivation for completing it is to acquire Copy Abilities not available inside Museums and a Maxim Tomato after defeating every mid-boss. Boss Endurance Boss Endurance mode is unlocked by beating the game once. Meta Knightmare The player can play through the entire game as Meta Knight, but can't save. Goal Game The goal game is carried over from Kirby's Adventure. Kirby jumps on a spring platform. The goal is to press the A button when the platform is at its lowest - this sends Kirby to the top level and nets a 1UP. Otherwise the player scores between 5,000 to 100 points depending on how close the timing is to perfect. Kirby's Return to Dream Land’s goal game uses the same mechanic. Multiplayer The game supports multi-player, with up to four players. Each player plays as a member of Kirby's species. Player 1 is Kirby, Player 2 is a Yellow Kirby, Player 3 is a Red Kirby, and Player 4 is a Green Kirby. For Story Mode and Boss Endurance, there is a cooperative mode. No player characters have any differentiation in their abilities, nor do their Copy Abilities (because of this, one may be confused if multiple Kirbys have an ability like Needle or Ice, and thus their skin colors will be uniform if they have those abilities). In Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land’s Co-op mode, there are some basic rules: *All players start on the highest level that all four players have completed. *All players automatically enter the first door that any one of the players enters. *No one can enter the doorway unless all of the players are grouped near the doorway. *It is also possible to call other players for help. For all three sub-games, there is a competitive mode. Copy Abilities Characters Bosses #Whispy Woods (Vegetable Valley) #Paint Roller (Ice Cream Island) #Mr. Shine & Mr. Bright (Butter Building) #Kracko (Grape Garden) #Heavy Mole (Yogurt Yard) #Meta Knight (Orange Ocean) #King Dedede (Rainbow Resort) #Nightmare (Fountain of Dreams) Mid-Bosses | }} Enemies | }} Music Staff Glitches List of Differences from Kirby's Adventure *Some new additions to the remake include 4-player support (as opposed to the single-player experience of the original), 32-bit graphics (as opposed to 8-bit), a decrease in difficulty, hats for most abilities (a feature introduced in Kirby Super Star), the three main sub-games from the original Kirby's Adventure being replaced by new ones, certain enemies from the original being replaced with new ones (Phan Phan replaced Rolling Turtle, Needlous replaced Togezo, and Gip replaced Bounder) and certain changes to certain levels. In addition, there are changes in the mechanics of certain Copy Abilities (Needle Kirby's spikes do not retract automatically, Wheel Kirby can drive on water, Backdrop Kirby dash-and-grabs enemies like Suplex rather than inhale-and-grabbing them). Several enemies (including bosses) also now have designs based on their appearances in Kirby Super Star (such as Rocky having a headband). *There are also some differences in what music is played during certain situations: In Stage 2 of Vegetable Valley, the underground/sky theme of the game is replaced by Ice Cream Island's theme. Also, a remix of the Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards mid-boss music now plays when fighting the Meta-Knights instead of the normal boss music, which is also replaced in the fight against King Dedede by a remix of the Fountain of Dreams' music from Super Smash Bros. Melee. Additionally, in Stage 2 of Rainbow Resort, the Arena music no longer plays, but rather, a version of King Dedede's theme plays. *After beating Extra Mode, the player will unlock "Meta Knightmare!", a sub-game that lets the player go through the game (minus the fight with Nightmare) as Meta Knight, with Extra Mode's three bars of vitality as a challenge, and with Meta Knight's sword, as he cannot inhale enemies. Also, the player cannot save in this sub-game, so he/she must play all in one go. Strangely enough, Meta Knight encounters himself but does not end up fighting Nightmare. This game mode is also timed and the greatest speed is saved. This idea was greatly expanded in Meta Knightmare Ultra from Kirby Super Star Ultra, which then gave Meta Knight his own solo storyline. *However, on top of all the upgrades are some gameplay and aesthetic downgrades. The graphics, while vibrant, were different at the time to the established Kirby style - the imagery seems to be very twisty and distant compared to the other games in the series, and the backgrounds are now static and are never animated. Hidden doors are more easily noticed as they are marked with certain objects, such as ventilation shafts, holes, and (most commonly) darkened areas. Several instances that pushed the NES hardware to its capabilities were strangely removed, such as Butter Building's rotating towers (which makes the Wheel ability far less useful around there). While the Ball and Hi-Jump abilities were upgraded, most abilities like Fire and Cutter were given some lag time due to the new frames of animation. While Tornado Kirby in the NES version remains invincible during the end of his animation while attacking an enemy, Tornado Kirby in the GBA version will get damaged while his animation is ending while attacking an enemy. Most of the bosses and all of the mid-bosses were made larger, but they are now somewhat clumsy and are not as threatening and precise as their NES counterparts (aside from the esoteric route found at the beginning of 7-2 and Phan Phan in 6-1). Outside of possibly Meta Knightmare, the game was generally made easier and more forgiving (as was common with Nintendo's other Game Boy Advance ports). Transcript Trivia *''Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land'' was promoted in commercials in the animation style of Kirby: Right Back at Ya! **This commercial features a parody of the song "Secret Agent Man" by Johnny Rivers. **Furthermore, most character designs in the anime are based on their appearance in Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land. *When Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is turned on, no less than 120 Kirbys rush across the title screen. *''Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land'' was the first Kirby game for a handheld system that allowed the hero to dash. Fittingly, it is a remake of the game that introduced Kirby's dash ability. *The first letters of each level (except for the Fountain of Dreams) spell out VIBGYOR, the acronym for the colors of the rainbow (backwards). This trait is directly carried over from the original NES version. *''Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land'' is the final game that Shinichi Shimomura (a longtime level designer for the Kirby series and the director of Kirby's Dream Land 2, Kirby's Dream Land 3, and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards) contributed to before his sudden and unexplained disappearance from the public eye; Shimomura served as co-director of Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land alongside series creator Masahiro Sakurai. *This was the first Kirby title whose international release reappropriated the logo for Kirby: Right Back at Ya! rather than using the logo that had been in place from Kirby's Dream Land to Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble. From this point on, all future games would reuse the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! logo, sometimes altering its color scheme to fit a certain design. *Oddly, when a boss is defeated, there is a sound of crowd cheering. Most other games do not have this, except in an arena stage that takes place in a stadium. **It is possible that the sound producers misheard the crashing sound effect from the boss defeat sequence in older Kirby games or placed the sound effect used in arena stages. *According to programmer Eitaro Nakamura, the development staff struggled to get four-player co-op working sufficiently. It did not work properly until "one or two months" before its deadline.[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/nom/0212/01/kirby/interv.html Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land interview] Artwork KWii art1.jpg|Tornado and Fire Kirby Backdrop.png|Backdrop Kirby Ball.png|Ball Kirby KNiDL Beam.png|Beam Kirby Burning KNiDL.png|Burning Kirby Crash.jpg|Crash Kirby Cutter.jpeg|Cutter Kirby 4-fire-3.png|Fire Kirby Freeze.png|Freeze Kirby KNiDL_Hammer.png|Hammer Kirby Hi-Jump NiDL.png|Hi-Jump Kirby Laser2.png|Laser Kirby Light.png|Light Kirby Mike.jpeg|Mike Kirby Needle.png|Needle Kirby Parasol.JPGParasol Kirby Sleep.JPG|Sleep Kirby KNIDL Spark.png|Spark Kirby Starrod.png|Star Rod Kirby KNiDL Stone.png|Stone Kirby Sword.jpg|Sword Kirby 25-throw-1.png|Throw Kirby 12-tornado-2.png|Tornado Kirby 23-ufo-2.png|UFO Kirby KNiDL_Wheel_Kirby.png|Wheel Kirby Box Art KNiD Boxart.jpg| Box Art KNiD Boxart Back.jpg| Box Art back KNiD Boxart Spine.jpg| Box Art spine KNiD Boxart Flap.jpg| Box Art flap KNiD Boxart P.jpg| Box Art KNiD Boxart P Back.jpg| Box Art KNiD Boxart A.jpg| Box Art KNiD Boxart A Back.jpg| Box Art KNiD Boxart J.jpg| Box Art KNiD Boxart Jap Back.jpg| Box Art back Media KNiD Cartridge.jpg| Cartridge KNiD P Cartridge.jpg| Cartridge KNiD A Cartridge.jpg| Cartridge KNiD J Cartridge.jpg| Cartridge Demo_KNiD.png| Demo Cartridge Nightmare in Dream Land.gif|Wallpaper KWallpaper_3.jpg|Wallpaper knid_fly_1280_1024.jpg|Wallpaper knid_surf_1280_1024_2.jpg|Wallpaper knid_tapete_1280_1024.jpg|Wallpaper knid_walk_1280_1024.jpg|Wallpaper nightmare-banner.png|Banner advertisement pub_knid.jpg|Print advertisement KNiD Ad.png|Print advertisement Kirbynid.jpg|Nintendo VIP 24:7 card Logo KNiD logo.png|Logo KNiD Logo J.png| logo External links *Official Nintendo Japan site References de:Kirby: Schatten bedrohen Traumland es:Kirby: Pesadilla en Dream Land fr:Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land it:Kirby: Incubo nella Terra dei Sogni ja:星のカービィ 夢の泉デラックス zh:星之卡比 梦之泉豪华版 Category:Games Category:Remakes Category:2000s games Category:Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land Category:Traditional platformers Category:Games with demos